Former Chief Justice HL Dattu takes over as the new chairperson of NHRC

New Delhi: Former Chief Justice of India HL Dattu on Monday took charge as the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

He is the seventh Chairperson of the Commission.

Justice KG Balakrishnan completed his tenure on 11 May, last year following which member of the Commission Justice Cyriac Joseph held charge as the acting Chairperson.

Justice Dattu has been associated with several significant judgments. He was on the bench that expanded the Indian jurisprudence on death sentence cases by commuting the death penalty of terror convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar to life term over mental illness and an inordinate delay in deciding his mercy plea by the government.

HL Dattu. Image courtesy: PIB

Justice Dattu also headed the bench that acquitted 11 persons charged under terror laws telling the Gujarat police that no innocent person should be branded a terrorist and put behind bars simply because he belongs to a minority community.

He pronounced a landmark ruling with the observation that "bail is the rule and jail an exception" while hearing the 2G case.

He was on the Constitution Bench that declared as "unconstitutional" a law enacted by Kerala to restrict water level in the Mullaperiyar dam to 136 feet, while protecting the legal right of Tamil Nadu.

Born on 3 December, 1950 in Chikamagaluru district of Karnataka, Justice Dattu, after completing his early education in Kadur, Tarikere and Birur, moved to Bengaluru to pursue his higher studies.

He completed his LLB from Bengaluru and enrolled at the Karnataka Bar Council on 23 October, 1975 as an advocate and pleaded in civil, criminal, constitutional and taxation matters.

He was appointed as a judge of the Karnataka High Court on 18 December, 1995 and elevated as the Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court on 12 February, 2007.

On 18 May, 2007, he was transferred to head the Kerala High Court. He was elevated as the Judge of the Supreme Court 17 December, 2008 and was appointed as the Chief Justice of India on 28 September, 2014. He retired on 2 December, 2015.